Iterative roots of continuous functions with non-isolated forts (Q2306708)

Assume that \(I\) is a compact interval and \(F\colon I\to I\) is a continuous function. The \(n\)-th iterative root of \(F\) is a continuous function \(f\colon I\to I\) satisfying \(F=f^{n}\), where the exponent stands for the \(n\)-th composite iterate. The fort of \(F\) is a point in \(I\) with no neighborhood where \(F\) is monotone. Denote the number of non-isolated forts of \(F\) by \(N^*(F)\) and let \(H^*(F)\) be the smallest natural \(m\) fulfilling \(N^*(F^m)=N^*(F^{m+1})\). If such natural number does not exist, then we set \(H^*(F):=+\infty\). The authors present two main results. The first one states that a continuous function \(F\colon I\to I\) with \(H^*(F)>1\) cannot have iterative roots of order grater then \(N^*(F)\). The second one states that, for any continuous function \(G\colon I\to I\), for any \(\varepsilon>0\), and for any \(n\in\mathbb{N}\), there exists a continuous function \(F\colon I\to I\) such that \(N^*(F)=n\), \(H^*(F)>1\), and \(\|F-G\|_{\infty}<\varepsilon\).